Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Breaking News: Keep An Eye On "NASCAR Now" (6PM - ESPN2)

Lots of email and links starting to come in about the rumors of Max Siegel buying Teresa Earnhardt completely out of DEI.

The very unofficial scoop is that she keeps the rights to the Dale Sr. name and logos and Siegel uses an outside investor to take-over the company. Earnhardt gets a generous income for life and out of the public eye. Interesting.

ESPN2 is currently scheduled for a big Richard Petty 50th anniversary NASCAR Now show from Petty Enterprises at 6PM. Shannon Spake is set to host this special and no doubt some plans are changing as we speak.

The weakness of ESPN is that they do not have a small studio or even an office on the ground in Mooresville, NC. They do have a company called ESPN Regional Television (ERT) down on the southside of Charlotte, but that is a long way from Mooresville, especially in traffic. ERT is the location most of the NASCAR Now Charlotte liveshots originate. There are no NASCAR reporters based at ERT.

43 comments:

I was reading about this online overnight. Not surprised.(my opinion reading of the sponsor problems). But can you imagine what Dale Jr is thinking. And as I type this I am watching the 1996 Hanes 500 at Martinsville from 22 Sep 96 on MASN. I agree w/you JD, NASCAR Now is a must watch tonight. I have to say again. Can you imagine what Dale Jr is thinking. Still love your comment" Isn't TV fun". Thanks

I believe MRN has moved their headquarters to the Charlotte area and have new studios. PRN has new "palatial" studios at Charlotte Motor Speedway and I thought I heard that NASCAR or ESPN had wired all the major team sites in the Charlotte area for remotes. With the availability of satellite trucks for hire, does ESPN really have a need for its own facility in the Charlotte/Mooresville area? Also, what about NASCAR Images, or whatever its named now?

Lou, my first thoughts as I read this were also what must Jr be thinking? This has to hurt...actually it has to hurt all the kids.

Then I read Teresa wants out of the limelight due to the fall out of the NASCAR Nation after Jr split...man oh man. Jr and his sister have to be depressed over this one..they could not have it but a stranger can ?

richard in n.c said: . . . and I believe he (tony stewart) and Jr. are partners in a race track in Ky.

quick clarification: stewart, dale and ken schrader are all partners in the paducah racetrack in ky.

i'll keep my thoughts about the reality of all this to myself right now and focus on the media aspect. i had always assumed espn had a studio, with reporters/talent, in place, either in mooresville, concord or charlotte i hadn't connected that they only have a regional presence w/no nascar reporters in charlotte.an 8 year committement is fairly substantial, especially when one of your competition is better placed and another is building its own studio presence. seems to me espn needs to figure out how to maximize its financial committment and get some sort of larger studio presence in the heart of the nascar world so that they can take advantage of stories like this one.

(and i simply can't resist this thought: could all this be a trial balloon being floated by dei? just wondering.)

daly planet editor said...Think they added Nicole at the last moment? My info had Shannon there but nothing about Nicole.

i get that impression. maybe nicole is the "news" anchor, brought in to cover the #1 penalties and the dei rumor and shannon is the "soft" anchor? dunno.(and there's chris economaki! woo-hoo!)wow! what an awkward plug for espn sports century and the coming show isn't even on petty! whole thing seems disjointed to me. was this project a long time in th eplanning or a last moment decision?

hey jd? should we be having this discussion under the other column? i just realized we're posting under the dei rumor column . . .

didn't hear nicole say where she is but i think she had petty cars behind her so that reduces it to level cross or mooresville. maybe we'll see when she speaks with kyle after the break.and it still feels confused to me right now. i'm disappointed.

What a letdown. The interview w/the King was the best part of the hour. What this show did not have was energy in it. Shannon, it seemed was outmatched. I was looking for more indepth questions I quess.

well, that wasn't so much fun.they closed with the same footage they'd used either in the show. as texasracelady says, i also expected something different. there has to be a veritable wealth of images of the king available and any number of guys willing to talk about him on camera. i just have the sense that this could have been so much more interesting.

i like kyle and i appreciate his work on VJG but i thought the program was to be about the king? i would have rather heard more from kyle about being the king's son, maybe compare that experience to what dale jarrett or dale earnhardt jr experienced? and how about putting some more faces on camera from those great battles? we heard from pearson but what about a few of the others who are still around?

i also liked the piece with dj copp but it really didn't belong on this show. if you're going to do a tribute to the king, then do that. save the rest for another episode of NN.

Well,, this could have been better. should've had Nicole doing the interviews. Spake just sat there seeming lost and saying "um" a lot. Could've been better questions asked and thought they would ask Kyle about being the son of King as well.

Hmmm..course intermittently the screen when black for a second here on digital tvs...storms in the area...both tvs. Not exactly what I was expecting.

Heck, it was fun seeing King on QVC last week and I would've never caught that but my mom called me 10 minutes into that show.

The show did seem to have poor direction and I also heard the echo sometimes.

ESPN might have been better served doing all this today and putting it together for airing on Wednesday. Might have flowed better especially if it could have been AB doing the interviewing. I also wonder if we would have seen a totally different show (I'm guessing yes) if it was just Shannon as first planned and the DEI/Truex stuff had not happened. I would have loved to see more of the "stuff" that is housed there instead of it just being used as a backdrop.

I haven't watched my recording yet but Oh My Land! She really asked The King and Mr. Inman when they first met? I think I learned about their relationship I believe my first year watching. Sounds like I'll be doing the headshake when I do check it out.